In the 7th Secondary National Curriculum (2001), the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MOE) presented guidelines stating that 10 hours of sex education was to be implemented annually. In addition, in the 2007 revised National Curr...
In the 7th Secondary National Curriculum (2001), the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MOE) presented guidelines stating that 10 hours of sex education was to be implemented annually. In addition, in the 2007 revised National Curriculum, contents related to teenage pregnancy and adult diseases were emphasized, thus making middle school sex education an important task for the future. However, most schools do not have time separately allotted to sex education, and even when sex education is provided, it is operated not as an independent subject but through related subjects, which renders actual sex education difficult. It is therefore necessary to provide systematic and efficient sex education through subjects related to sex education.
The present study therefore seeks to raise the effectiveness of school sex education in the future by analyzing the contents of sex education-related subjects revised in 2007 (Home Economics, Physical Education, Science, Social Studies, and Ethics) and comparatively analyzing parents’ awareness of the contents of sex education in Home Economics. Furthermore, it seeks to present the direction of sex education in Home Economics by exploring the possibility and role of sex education in the subject.
As for the methodology of the present study, content analysis was conducted, and, with sex education area classification developed by Mi-Hee Choi (2008) as the standard, the contents of sex education addressed in the revised Home Economics, Physical Education, Science, Social Studies, and Ethics subjects of 2007 were analyzed in terms of a total of 27 textbooks. In addition, 270 parents of middle school students living in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province were surveyed regarding their awareness of the contents of sex education in Home Economics. To construct the survey, analytical standards identical to those used in subject analysis were applied, and the data were analyzed using the SPSS 18.0 Windows program.
The results of the present study are as follow:
First, the contents of sex education addressed in Home Economics, Physical Education, Science, Social Studies, and Ethics textbooks, all of which are related to sex education, were presented in accordance with the academic nature of each subject. In particular, out of the 28 sex education topics in sex education area classification, “genital hygiene,” “artificial abortion,” “teenage pregnancy,” “sexually transmitted diseases,” and “AIDS” were addressed only in Home Economics textbooks. In addition, when overlapping elements of the contents of the subjects were analyzed, “psychological characteristics of adolescents,” “gender roles and gender role stereotypes,” and “gender equality” were the most frequently overlapping contents of sexual education addressed in four out of the five subjects, followed by “physical development and changes during adolescence,” “roles of male and female sex hormones and secondary sex characteristics,” and “causes of, responses to, and prevention of sexual violence,” which were addressed in three subjects.
Second, to examine parents’ overall awareness of the contents of sexual education in Home Economics, the contents of Home Economics viewed as necessary by parents were investigated first. According to the results, “meaning of home” scored the highest, followed by “roles and responsibilities of family members” and “physical development and changes during adolescence,” all seen as highly necessary. As for the degree of necessity for the contents of sex education in Home Economics as viewed by parents, “causes of, responses to, and prevention of sexual violence” scored the highest in terms of the degree of necessity, followed by “meaning of home” and “roles and responsibilities of family members,” in this order. This reveals that there are slight differences in parents’ awareness of the necessity for and their views on the degree of necessity for the contents of sex education.
Consequently, because the contents of sex education related to marriage and home, which scored high in terms of parents’ awareness of necessity and their views on the degree of necessity, are not addressed in other subjects, they need to be addressed in a more interesting manner in Home Economics. In addition, if “childbirth,” which is not addressed in /Home Economics, is presented in conjunction with the contents related to “pregnancy,” it will be possible to provide students with broader sexual knowledge. In addition, as for the contents of sex education not addressed in Home Economics, Physical Education, Science, Social Studies, and Ethics, there are “abnormal sexual behavior” and “prostitution.” Because “prostitution” in particular is a socially critical sexual problem related to adolescents, if contents related to it are addressed in accordance with the nature of Home Economics, it will help to prevent diverse sexual problems.